Today’s post is to say thank you, firstly to the people who worked with me to organise last Weekend’s Blog Tour. Then to the followers who promoted my posts and finally to share what I have learnt.
Firstly there’s Debra Brown, who seems to work tirelessly to keep up a blog which never ceases to surprise. Debbie, who writes fiction in the Regency Period, hosts posts from a wide variety of authors of historical fiction and you can gain an insight into the depth of their research. It is a place to ask questions and there is often a debate going as to a piece of research that has become a bit puzzling. It is a site for anyone interested in history and not just authors, but the beauty of it for an author is that there is a whole community on facebook who support each other, share and tweet posts. Here is her site:
English Historical Fiction Authors
The second person I need to thank was writer Mary Ann Loesch. She has guest bloggers from a variety of subjects and also does reviews. Here’s another good post on All things Writing on making an e book in Callibre.
Now the first two posts were plane sailing and there the fun started. It’s a lesson to authors to factor in different time zones when planning a venture like this because my next post on the Saturday was to promote both of my novels. I knew it was an Australian site and so expected them to be in front of us. Confusion reigned because their server was in the US and so I quickly calculated that the post would go live at approx 11am UK time, and so it did. No worries! Many thanks to Stacey Nash for the promotion.
Lastly I need to give a big thank you to JA Beard, who also works with Debra Brown on Goodreads to manage the Historicalfictionitas Group, where you can ask questions, read reviews, advertise your special promotions and generally chat to other similar authors. JA Beard is a YA author who has published The Emerald City and he kindly interviewed me for his site. Where they both find time to write I have no idea, but his site is worth a look whether you are an author or a reader.
So, what have I leanrt:
-
Organising a simple weekend Blog Hop is possible, fun but quite time consuming
- Don’t forget to use all platforms to promote it..twitter, facebook and good reads and more …I’m afraid I didn’t get around to Goodreads. It was such a hectic week
- Try to arrange it in your schedule when you have time to spare (difficult I know!)
- Always follow up comments if you can and thank for RT
- Start small, in a manageable time period
- Don’t forget the time differences and factor it in accordingly
- Just chose a time slot and send off your polite email requests. The writing community out there is very kind and supportive but it works both ways. Don’t forget to support others too.
- Finally enjoy!
Diana Jackson 